There has long been the suggestion that Gatland was undermined by his then assistant O'Sullivan, who succeeded the Kiwi as Ireland head coach. The pair's relationship has been strained ever since but O'Sullivan, writing in his newly-published autobiography, says that he did not stab his former boss in the back.

"There was little sense of a coherent strategy. He'd come down in the morning with a few lines scribbled on a piece of paper and, in training, there was no such thing as time allocation," O'Sullivan writes.

"Sessions that were meant to last an hour and a half drifted to two hours and beyond. He would lose the confidence of some key senior players in 2001. By the time we played the so-called 'foot and mouth' games that autumn, a few of them had had enough."

O'Sullivan also claims that Gatland also paid the price for showing scant regard for his employers within the Irish Rugby Football Union.

"His dealings with the union were poor," the Corkonian argues. "It seemed that he treated the committee men with contempt, often flatly ignoring them when they'd be in the team hotel."

The Rugby Football Union drew a line under the controversy on Friday when disciplinary chief Judge Jeff Blackett revealed that Harlequins will face no further punishment over the fabrication of a blood injury during last season's Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat by Leinster.

However, there has been the suggestion that England's use of blood substitutions is now going to be investigated. Johnson, though, insists that he has no case to answer.

"I don't have to defend myself," he told the Daily Express. "(But) I don't appreciate my name being in the headlines associated with that (the Harlequins inquiry). I've been in charge of England for 11 Test matches and we have nothing to hide on the blood substitutions.

"Fake blood is not something I've ever seen or had any suspicion of in any game I've been involved in throughout my career. It has been exposed fully. It's not being brushed under the carpet."

The England international damaged ligaments in his knee in 2007 and spent ten months out of the game. During that time, his leg became infected and was told that if the emergency surgery he required was not successful, amputation would be the next step.

"I picked up an infection during the recovery process and had to have surgery to clear it all out. Amputation was the worst-case scenario," he is quoted as saying by The Sun.

"Do I thank my lucky stars I came through it? Yes... but I try not to think about it too much. But I do owe so much to the medical staff at Leicester, and I'm very lucky to be back playing."

Less than 24 hours after the Rugby Football Union officially brought an end to its enquiry into the events surrounding the fabrication of a blood injury in last season's Heineken Cup clash with Leinster, Evans took the opportunity to draw a line under the affair in his programme notes for Saturday's Guinness Premiership clash with Leicester at the Stoop.

"It has been a torrid and difficult summer for the club for reasons that you all know and we have lost some people who have given quite exceptional service to Harlequins over many years," he wrote.

"We have made some huge mistakes and need to apologise to all our supporters, sponsors and staff for that. The reputation of the club has taken a deserved battering and we will need to redouble our efforts over a long period of time to restore it."